Tire interior inspecting method and tire interior inspecting system for carrying out the same

Abstract

A tire interior inspecting method irradiates a tire being continuously conveyed by a conveyor with x-rays emitted from a predetermined position, receives the x-rays penetrated through the tire by a high resolution linear x-ray sensor to obtain x-ray information about the tire, compares the x-ray information with normal tire image information about the metallic components of a normal tire, removes parts of the x-ray image information coinciding with the normal tire image information, and decides the quality of interior of the tire on the basis of image information obtained by removing parts of the x-ray image information coinciding with the normal timer image information.

What is claimed is:  
     
       1. A tire interior inspecting method comprising the steps of: 
       conveying a tire on a roller conveyor having spaced-apart parallel conveyor rollers;  
       irradiating x-rays from an X-ray irradiating unit at a predetermined position on to and through the tire being conveyed on said roller conveyor within an x-ray curtain extending in a longitudinal direction of the conveyor rollers, and causing the x-ray curtain to pass through a gap between adjacent conveyor rollers;  
       detecting the x-rays, that have passed through the tire being conveyed on the roller conveyor, by a high-resolution linear x-ray sensor, and obtaining x-ray image information of the tire;  
       providing a normal tire image information including at least one metallic ring component constituting a normal tire;  
       removing said normal tire image information from said x-ray image information to obtain a residual image; and  
       determining whether there is a defective interior quality of the tire when said residual image includes an irregularity.  
     
     
       2. The tire interior inspecting method according to claim  1 , wherein said removing step is performed by superposing said normal tire image information with said x-ray image information. 
     
     
       3. The tire interior inspecting method according to claim  1 , wherein said step of determining is based on the presence of foreign matter in said residual image. 
     
     
       4. A tire interior inspecting system comprising; 
       a roller conveyor including spaced-apart parallel conveyor rollers on which a tire is conveyed;  
       an x-ray irradiating unit provided at a predetermined position with respect to said roller conveyor to irradiate x-rays on to and through the tire being conveyed on said roller conveyor within an x-ray curtain extending in a longitudinal direction of the conveyor rollers, said x-ray curtain passing through a gap between adjacent conveyor rollers;  
       a high-resolution linear x-ray sensor that detects the x-rays that have passed through the tire being conveyed on the roller conveyor and obtains x-ray image information about the tire;  
       image comparing and processing means for comparing normal tire image information including at least one metallic ring component constituting a normal tire with said x-ray image information and for removing said normal tire image information from said x-ray image information to obtain a residual image; and  
       determining means for determining whether there is defective interior quality of the tire when the residual image includes an irregularity.  
     
     
       5. The tire interior inspecting system according to claim  4 , wherein said image comparing and processing means includes an image processing means that performs an image processing operation for superposing said normal tire image information with said x-ray image information to remove the normal tire image information from the x-ray image information. 
     
     
       6. The tire interior inspecting system according to claim  4 , wherein said high-resolution linear x-ray sensor has a resolution smaller than diameters of said metallic ring components. 
     
     
       7. The tire interior inspecting system according to claim  4 , wherein said determining means determines a defect based on the presence of foreign matter. 
     
     
       8. The tire interior inspecting system according to claim  4 , wherein said at least one metallic ring component is a belt ply or a bead.